Stuck with You
by lawslave
Summary: Just some of the things you talk about to pass time...


_**Just a silly, very short fluff piece, one chapter only._

1:14pm

Eddie Janko and her partner, Jamie Reagan, were reporting to a burglary call in a lower Manhattan high-rise and waiting patiently for an elevator to arrive.

"Wow. This place is pretty swanky," she said as she spun where she stood, admiring the elaborate lobby of the residential building.

"I don't see myself ever living in a place like this," Jamie commented before stepping into the express elevator to the higher floors.

"At least not on our pay," Eddie responded and followed Jamie in. "What floor was it?" she asked.

"Thirty-fifth," he replied and stepped to the back of the elevator.

Eddie pressed the button on the panel and turned to join Jamie where he leaned against a metal railing. The doors closed and the car began to move quickly, taking them to their designated floor.

Eddie glanced at Jamie, already thinking about the end of tour, which couldn't come soon enough for her. "We still on for -"

Before Eddie could finish her question, the elevator emitted a loud, grinding noise and came to a sudden, jerking halt that nearly knocked both officers off their feet.

Jamie reached for the railing with one hand and for Eddie with the other. "Woah!"

Eddie had done the same, her eyes wide when she turned to her partner. "What just happened?" she asked, slightly alarmed.

Jamie stood in place for a moment to make sure the elevator car was really done moving. "I think we're stuck," he eventually answered as he studied the small display on the button panel which didn't indicate how far up they had gotten.

"Seriously?" Eddie asked in disbelief.

Jamie approached the panel and began to randomly hit buttons to get the car moving again. "I don't think we even made it to the first floor this car opens up to," he said.

Jamie managed to get a hold of the building's security through the call system in the elevator to notify them of the problem, which they promised they would work quickly to resolve. He then reached for his shoulder radio. "12-David to Central."

"Central to 12-David, go ahead."

"We've got a situation at our location. We're, uh," Jamie couldn't help but smirk at his partner as he reported in, "stuck in the elevator. Requesting a unit to respond to our 10-21."

"They better hope they don't get stuck too," Eddie grumbled. "Or have to climb thirty-five flights of stairs."

"Copy that, 12-David. Do you require additional assistance?"

"Building security has been alerted. We'll keep you posted," he advised.

"10-4."

"How long are we gonna be stuck here?" Eddie asked. Annoyance had replaced the alarm she was feeling a few moments ago.

"You got somewhere else to be?" Jamie asked.

"No. Just asking," Eddie replied as she began pacing the very short width of the elevator.

Jamie resumed his position against the back railing. "Well, lucky for me, we just came off meal, so there should be no complaints from you about hunger," he quipped.

Eddie stopped opposite her partner and one corner of her mouth slowly rose upward. "That depends on how long we're stuck here," she countered, but then crossed her arms and gave him the evil eye. "And that's not all I think about, you know."

"Sure it's not," Jamie told her with a grin.

"Hopefully, we get out before either of us has to use a bathroom," Eddie prayed as she leaned back against the elevator wall.

"Let's hope."

1:48pm

"Who's your top five, Reagan?"

Eddie and Jamie were sitting across from each other, each one leaning back against opposite sides of the elevator with their legs stretched out across the floor.

Jamie had been running through a list of chores in his head that he needed to get done when his partner spoke. "My what?"

Eddie smiled at the confusion on his face. If they were going to be stuck in here, might as well pass the time with something interesting. "Your top five. You know, the top five celebrities you'd be allowed to cheat with if given the chance, with no repercussions," she explained.

"Wouldn't be cheating if I'm not seeing anyone," he advised.

Eddie rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever, just who's on your list?" she repeated.

Jamie shrugged. "I don't know. I'd have to think about it," he said. "You have a list?"

"Of course," she replied.

"Of course," Jamie repeated and chuckled at the seriousness of her response. "So who's on it?" he asked.

Eddie took a deep breath, her brow furrowing as she thought hard about who her current top five list was comprised of - it was constantly changing. "Channing Tatum -"

"The stripper movie guy?" Jamie interrupted.

"It's Magic Mike and yes," she huffed, annoyed once again. "Don't interrupt and don't judge. A girl can dream," she declared.

"Sorry. Proceed," he instructed.

Eddie held up her hand and finished counting the remaining candidates. "Chris Hemsworth, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Brady, although I cannot cheer for his team but he is hot and kind of cocky, and Gerard Butler."

Jamie found the last one strange. "He's a little old for you, no?" he asked.

"He's in his forties and he's got that sexy, older man thing going. And who cares? That's the whole point of the list, it's whoever floats your boat," she told him. "Did you know he was an attorney before he became an actor?"

Jamie pretended to be impressed. "I didn't, but I'm happy to know we have that in common," he quipped.

"So, who's on your list?" she asked again.

"Hmmm..." Jamie looked up as he considered the possibilities.

"Come on, don't over analyze. Who do you find sexy?" Eddie inquired. "Every guy's list consists of at least one Victoria's Secret model."

Jamie nodded in agreement. "Sure, I could pick one of them, if I had to. Always had a thing for Charlize Theron, though," he revealed.

"Tall, blonde and gorgeous, of course," Eddie mumbled.

"Hey, don't judge," he said, feeling the need to defend his choice. "Mila Kunis is cute and she's short and a brunette," he added.

"What are you saying? You don't have one type?" she asked.

"Don't think so. Just depends on who catches my eye," he shot back with a grin.

2:23pm

"They have not won a Super Bowl since way before you were alive! Your dad probably wasn't on the force the one and only time they ever won an actual Super Bowl," Eddie argued.

"Hey, at least I'm not a fair-weather fan," he said, annoyed by her string of attacks against his beloved Jets.

"Neither am I, but the Giants are obviously the better team," she replied. "They've been to the Super Bowl four times," Eddie held four fingers up in his direction to emphasize the significance of that particular achievement, "since I was born and won three out of four of those times," she finished. "And they have a quarterback," she added for good measure.

Jamie's brow's crinkled in disbelief. "Seriously? More like 'had' a quarterback," he jibed.

Eddie pointed a finger at him. "Say what you want about Eli, but he's come through for the team," she stated.

"Whatever," Jamie sighed.

2:59pm

"It's ridiculous! It's been I don't know how many seasons and they have yet to run out of bullets!" Eddie chided.

"They go on supply runs, Eddie. They find supplies," Jamie explained. "And it's TV! How often do you see the criminals on those cop dramas getting arrested, tried and convicted in the span of a few days' time on a sixty-minute show?"

Completely ignoring his reasoning, Eddie continued to vent. "And why is it that the zombies are quicker now than they were the first season? My grandmother could have run laps around them before. Now? Now they pop up out of nowhere and do the forty-yard dash in under four seconds while the regular people are the slow pokes! They're all getting eaten!"

Jamie rolled his eyes and exhaled sharply when he realized she wasn't hearing him. "Again, it's television. And it wouldn't be exciting if the zombies weren't faster or more clever somehow than they were before," he stressed.

"They're dead! How can they be clever?" Eddie threw her hands up in the air in utter frustration. "Just get it over with already! Either turn them all into zombies or tell us why, for the love of God, why this happened to begin with!"

Jamie gave her a pointed look. "This is why I will never watch that show with you," he assured her. "You pick it all apart and want instant gratification. What's the point of that?" he asked.

Eddie crossed her arms and returned the same look. "You know I'm right, Reagan," she replied.

3:34pm

"Super speed," he declared proudly from his position on the floor.

"Why?" Eddie asked as she stood to lean against one corner of the elevator.

Jamie gave her a face that screamed 'duh!' "Why not? I'd be so fast, I could get to calls as the perps are still committing the crime and stop them before anyone got really hurt, catch the bad guys before they get away, save someone from a bullet or whatever. Whisk people away to a hospital in a nanosecond for emergency care," he pointed out in rapid fire succession.

"All right, all right," she replied.

"So what's yours?" Jamie asked from where he stood next to his partner.

"Super strength," Eddie answered.

"Okay. Why?"

"'Cause it sucks doing this job and being seen as the weaker sex," she explained.

"No one sees you as the weaker sex, Eddie," he told her.

Eddie smiled at his response. "You, partner, are one of the few people I wouldn't accuse of being a cave man. Some guys on the force have trouble seeing women as their equals and it's those few that usually ruin the whole vibe for everyone else. If I were super strong, I could knock out a perp or any other jackass with one punch before they ever try over power me," she said.

"I get that," Jamie responded.

The smile fell from Eddie's face. "And that thing with Jake Singer wouldn't have happened," she added.

Jamie's head turned quickly toward his partner. "That wasn't on you, Eddie," he reassured her.

Eddie refused to look him in the eye, focusing instead on the buttons of the panel in front of her. "I know that, I guess. But still. It sucks and it's scary when someone knows they're bigger and stronger than you and they use it against you," she shared.

4:00pm

"What would your last meal be?" Jamie asked.

They now sat next to each other against the back wall of the elevator. The fire department had been called in to get them out, but it was taking longer than expected since there we're no openings in the elevator shaft between the thirteenth and fourteenth floors, where they were currently stuck.

"That's really hard," she complained.

Jamie's head rolled against the back wall as amusement flashed across his face. "Too many options, huh?"

"How could I choose just one? Do I go with a juicy steak or tender, baby back ribs? Or what about that burger we had at that place that one time after tour?" she asked.

"The one with the bacon?"

Eddie's head spun towards him. "Could bacon be a meal?" she pondered.

Jamie's eyebrows shot up at her question. "I don't know. I would hope not," he replied.

Eddie sighed. "We shouldn't have done this one. Now I'm getting hungry. Tell me yours," she ordered. "The way you eat, it's bound to kill any cravings I'm having."

4:41pm

"So she gave me back my mom's ring and ended up going to London for six months," he said.

Eddie studied his face and saw a tinge of what she thought might be sadness. "You haven't spoken to her since then?" she asked.

Jamie shook his head. "Nope. It's been four years now," he said.

"Any regrets?"

Jamie thought for a second. It had been a long time since he'd thought about Sydney and that whole mess. "I don't know. I guess not. But I'd be lying if I said I've never wondered where we'd be if she hadn't left. But I have to think that it just wasn't meant to be, that there's someone else out there. All I know is that there wasn't any way I was going to put aside finding out who really killed Joe. I guess my only regret is not getting my Dad and Danny involved sooner," he admitted. "Maybe that would have put less of a strain on our relationship."

"Why didn't you?" Eddie wondered. "You guys seem to tell each other everything."

"I don't really know," Jamie said. There seemed to be a lot of reasons, but in the end, it had just been a very confusing time for him. "At first, I wondered why Joe was working with the FBI and didn't tell my Dad, so then I wondered if there was something else going on that I didn't know about. I never understood that. On the other hand, Joe and I were real close, so sometimes it just kind of felt like maybe he would have wanted me to finish it for him," he reasoned. Jamie's eyes met Eddie's. "Stupid, huh? 'Cause I sure as hell didn't know what I was getting myself into," he said.

Eddie regarded her partner. "Not so stupid, Reagan. I can understand wanting to do it for him," she said softly.

5:05p.m.

"So how'd you find out then?" Jamie asked.

"We had some Federal agents come knocking on our door." Eddie paused and stared aimlessly across the small elevator as those memories played in her mind like some bad movie. "I was home from school one weekend during my junior year and they asked for my dad. They were there to serve a warrant for his home office. I had no idea what was going on. My mom came up behind me to see who it was and they handed her the papers. My dad looked at us and said it was no big deal, it was a misunderstanding, his lawyer would take care of it. But I could see the panic in his eyes, so I knew it wasn't nothing," she recalled. "A month later, he was arrested."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Jamie sympathized.

Eddie looked down and focused on where her hands lay across her lap. "It didn't end there. The trial and the sentencing were a real riot. There was a line out through the courtroom doors of people he stole from waiting to say their peace before the sentencing, a lot of people I knew. And most of whom don't speak to me or my mom anymore, but who can blame them, right?" She forced a smile on to her face to hide the pain those memories usually brought with them.

"That's not right. You guys did nothing wrong," Jamie defended.

"Maybe not, but most people had trouble believing that since we were living high on the hog right along with my dad. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't have talked to me anymore either," she admitted.

5:25pm

"It was slow and painful for her. She passed my first year of law school," he finished, his voice soft and distracted by his own memories.

"That's hard. I've never had to deal with anyone really close to me passing. My mom's parents died, but they were in Croatia. I never met them. I can't imagine what that was like for you guys, with both Joe and your mom," Eddie said.

Jamie was still caught up in that painful time when something occurred to him. "We all got to say goodbye to my mom, but saw her suffer for a long time. With Joe, he died so fast, no one had a chance to say goodbye. I wasn't even in the city. I sometimes think about which was worse, but I have trouble deciding. I'd give anything to not have had her suffer for so long, but I'd also give anything to have been able to say goodbye to Joe."

5:53pm

The partners were all talked out and sitting shoulder to shoulder on one side of the elevator, waiting for a panel on the other side to be removed and free them from their tiny prison.

Jamie had his head against the wall with his eyes closed. Eddie laid her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes as well.

"I'm bored and tired. We should be at a bar right now," she mumbled.

Jamie smiled softly. "They said soon," he soothed.

"They've said the word 'soon' lots of times," she reminded him.

"Guess it takes time to break through an elevator shaft," Jamie surmised.

"Do you think we'll get overtime for this?" Eddie asked.

6:01pm

As soon as the the clattering started up outside of the elevator, they both stood and looked on, waiting eagerly to see another human form on the other side. Luckily for them, it wasn't but another minute before they heard a 'pop' and a panel slid away to reveal a member of the FDNY.

"Oh, thank god," Eddie cried.

"You guys okay?" the firefighter asked.

"Nothing a beer won't fix," Jamie shot back, a look of relief painted across his face.

"I hear you. Gimme a minute and we'll get you both out of here," he said before turning back.

Eddie looked over at her partner. "Speaking of which, we still on for that beer?"

"We've been together for the last ten hours," Jamie replied.

Eddie was having trouble deciding if that was a simple observation or whether it was more of a complaint, so she decided to just agree with him and leave it at that. "You're right."

They both faced the open panel and waited quietly for the firefighter to reappear.

"You know it's probably all your fault, but I could really go for one of those burgers we had that one time after tour. You up for a few more hours together?" Jamie asked while staring straight ahead.

Eddie couldn't keep one corner of her mouth from turning up. Her eyes shined brightly as she said, "I think I can manage that."

When the firefighter came back through the opening, he found both officers smiling brightly at the fact that they were finally getting out of there...or so he thought.


End file.
